Warrior's Wife Adventure

I was chatting on facebook with a mutual wife of a wounded service member. We were talking about what sort of substances one might get find themselves hooked on in our caregiver lifestyle of never enough sleep and always so much to do.

Here are the top ten, the caveat is this is for humorous purposes only. Addictions are nothing to laugh at, unless your addiction is to a really strange fetish like parakeet feet and then I am going to totally have a belly laugh at you and your parakeet. Poor, sad parakeet.

If you really find that you do have some sort of substance abuse issue with any of these substances, contact your local mental health provider as there are many ways to clean yourself up.

So, without further adieu, here are the top ten most likely to be over used stimulants available to us in the USA.

1. Coffee
2. Sodas whether diet or regular, the caffeine is the same
3. Energy Drinks – I used to depend on Sugar Free Red Bull to get me back and forth safely on the long drives to Ft. Sam Houston and back to Taylor and back to FSH again. My weekends would rack up 500 miles. I never wanted to drive tired with precious cargo in the car such as our son. So, sugar free red bull, twix, chips, and other things to perk me up were frequent passengers.
4. Energy Shots
5. Spark and other safe vitamin concoctions designed to perk you up using high amounts of B vitamins and such.
6. Herbal concoctions such as Ma Huang, aka Epehedra, Ripped Fuel, or Xenadrine
7. Wellbutrin – I have heard some people take this prescribed antidepressant because it tends to perk them up. Messing with your brain chemistry is never advocated. Seizures, worse depression, all sorts of crap could go down for you and your quest to find energy.
8. Amphetamines- if you are overweight and your doctor is old school, you might be getting prescribed these. Warning- speed kills. If you are taking these from a purchase off of a street corner pharmacist, you will find yourself arrested if these aren’t legally prescribed. You will get so strung out you might neglect your kids, your dog, and your wounded warrior. Bad, bad caregiver!
9. Cocaine- illegal, bad, horrible stuff and very much going to get you arrested if you use it. Not to mention bad for parenting! Also, that constant sniff and bugging out coke addicts do is very annoying. Blow your damn nose already!
10. When cocaine and amphetamines can’t do the trick, some junkies just go right for Crystal Meth. Although I can perceive the bonus of tweaking around and being awake for days, I am really attached to my healthy, pretty teeth and my skin. I have noticed how people that use speed and meth and other illicit narcotics tend to age faster than an average person. It really makes the face look horrible.

So, what can you do in a healthy manner to give you some energy that will not get you arrested, keep your health, teeth and sanity in check?
You can exercise. Get outside. The recharging of your D vitamins is very important. Vitamin D3 is super important for pain management (good for your wounded buddy, too) and you can only get it by taking a supplement or getting out in the son. Many of us (moi included) run a bit short on this. Tricare will cover labs to check this. It is amazing to me how much energy I feel from getting out with my pup on the leash. It is energizing. I use the time to clear my head, do some deep breathing, and focus on my pace and the dog and what he is investigating. Just getting out of your home can make you feel happier. Get a friend to meet you at a park and you have double the energy. Seriously. It is one of my favorite things to do.